It's time to stop: use Facebook To promote your business is not free. I will explain why.
This morning, while I was having breakfast, a post appeared on the Facebook wall from a lady, who lives in my small country of origin, who deals with hobbies and DIY: creating favors, compositions, etc. The post portrays some of her favors from her wedding: This lady has been using Facebook for a while to show off her creations to the mostly local public.
And so far, everything is fine.
What catches my attention is the comment of another lady from the same country, who congratulates her and tells her that keep using facebook to show their products because it is "a great advertising campaign at no cost «.
I know the lady who wrote the comment by sight: she is a retired woman who certainly does not deal with online communication and marketing, so she does not know, rightly, how this channel is actually used to do business, but I wanted to give , a useful tip for a friend, saying that Facebook is free because access to the platform is free (at any time you create an account and you can use the social network in a few seconds).
Really appreciated comment, but us in the sector we know that it is definitely incorrect to say that Facebook is free, almost as if to say: "we all use Facebook to promote yourself, it's so easy and free... it's needed!
From here some of my reflections started and I said to myself: “instead of keeping it to myself, why don't I write a blog post to share my thoughts with my readers?”
Facebook is not free. You know why?
Takes time.
It's time to create content. We all know very well that it is not true that it is enough to take any photo of a product and publish it; you have to identify the right light, highlight the details, choose the right angle. Let's be honest!). We are already at it, let's also dispel the myth according to which writing a post of a few lines on Facebook is easy, banal and within everyone's reach: simply knowing how to tell a situation, an emotion, a fact in a few characters, in a way exhaustive but effective, it is one of the things that requires the most effort, skill and time. It is not easy to communicate well with a few words.
It's time to respond to the questions and comments of those who follow us on the page.
It's time to analyze what the competition is doing.
Requires resources.
I am referring to resources both in terms of energy/effort and people.
If I am a craftsman and I have decided to take care of my Facebook page to advertise myself, I know that part of my time will have to be dedicated to social networks, so there will be minutes or hours in which I will not work on my product, but on the construction of my reputation and my corporate image. It is still a job, beautiful I would say, but it is not a "practical" job of creating the product because I, as a craftsman, cannot divide myself.
Of course, there is always an alternative: having a person follow the online communication, for example a consultant, but this obviously means spending money, so let's go back to square one: Facebook cannot be free.
Requires advertising.
Yes, those who want to use Facebook for business must invest in Facebook Ads , otherwise all the efforts to create content, respond to the community, think about new strategies to apply will have been in vain because the organic (non-sponsored) posts will be seen by very few people.
Take the case of the lady who makes wedding favors: even if she works locally, it would be unthinkable not to invest in Facebook Ads to reach a specific goal . His creations, which among other things acquire an important value for being homemade, must be seen by a specific public , for example:
- women (men barely deal with these aspects)
- of a specific age
- mothers, if the favors are for newborn children
- brides, if they are for future husbands
- with specific interests
- who live in the area (a person from Milan will never travel 250 km to come see or buy a wedding gift)
Finally, one last consideration: If you use Facebook on a personal level, it is not automatic that you also know how to use it on a professional level. In fact, the two things almost never coincide.
It's one thing to use Facebook for fun and another for business purposes.
Managing a company or brand's communication on Facebook requires skills, including technical, writing skills, and data analysis skills.
